Friday, March 27, 2015

I was talking to a friend the other night about how many pictures we put on a page and my answer was: usually one. When looking at online galleries, single photo layouts are fairly common, especially with the current emphasis on "white space" and the heavy embellishing trend. But honestly, the layouts that truly stand out to me are those that feature two or more photos. I expecially love it when I find a layout that features a whole giant grid of photos.

So this got me thinking: why do I stick to a single photo? The answer is, it's comfortable. I've been working exclusively with an 8.5x11 or 9x12 format for the last year and a half and as I work on a layout, I almost always feel like there just isn't enough room for more than one photo. That's an excuse though, there is plenty of room and I want to challenge myself to use more photos in layouts like I did here:

Two pictures, two different sizes. Yes, I went a little crazy.

(Am I the only scrapper who doesn't use a chipboard frame to actually frame a picture??)

I was quite excited about this layout and I am definitely going to start pushing my boundaries and work with multiple photos more often. I am not going to force it, but I am going to start exploring my options next time I create a layout.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Hi! Today I am sharing both a new layout and I look at my approach to title pages.
First, my daughter turned five last month and With You is a celebration of this milestone:

You can see that I had a little fun with this layout, pulling out a mix of products from March's Kits from the Hip Kit Club. Here are a few closeups of the details:

Prior to last year, this layout would have served as a "title" page to my daughter's yearly album. In 2014 though, I changed my routine up and began including a mix of both traditonal layouts and Project Life style pages in all of my albums that way I could play with all the fun PL products while still doing the traditional layouts that I love. Now, instead of a traditional style page serving as an introduction to a new album, I have been creating a PL style page. Here is how I did that for my daughter's album using the March PL Kit:

As you can see, the 6x8 page lies right on top of my traditional layout and both compliments the layout behind it as well as gives you peak as to what you will find when you turn the page.

When putting together a combination of layout types, I like to keep them somewhat coordinated. Along with using complimenting colors, I chose this 4x6 card because of the cameras-a motif I wanted to repeat throughout each pages.

Do you use Project Life style products? Are you using them strictly for Project Life or are you using it for both traditional and pocket pages like me? Would love for you to leave me a comment and share your take on PL products!

Monday, March 23, 2015

During this past Winter (and currently Spring) I often sat in front of my computer amazed at the amount of snow the eastern parts of the country were getting. My IG feed would be full of white snow and longing for the sun to come out. My winter on the other hand didn't look anything like what I was seeing, instead it looked this:

A little different right? Yes, we were at the beach in February. In bathing suits. Meanwhile, the majority of the country remained buried in snow. Weird.

Last week, which was the official last week of winter by the way, I spent my free time working on scrapping my winter beach pictures and this is the first layout and coordinating pocket page that I came up with:

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This layout was inspired by a recent sketch from Studio Calico.﻿

I love beach photos. I don't love picking and choosing the "ones" that make it onto a layout though, so my solution is to include a pocket page or two.﻿

So now tell me--what did your winter look like? As the above pictures suggests, I don't live at the beach. The beach is a couple short hours drive from where I actually live, but even here in the mountains, the winter was dry. No snow days. Nothing. If I could have, I would have certainly traded our beach day for several snow days ;).

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Good morning. I am very excited to be sharing my first layout made with the March Kits from Hip Kit Club! When I first saw the full reveal of what would be included in these kits, I instantly loved the colors-blue, turquoise, pink, and minty green. When I opened the box and saw them in real life I was in papercrafting heaven! The colors are gorgeous.
So perhaps it's fitting that this first layout pays tribute to one of these colors. Here is Denim Blue:

Aren't the colors awesome?? I went all out with this layout and had loads of fun embellishing!

This bright pink card from the new March PL Kit served as the perfect place for my title.

Aren't those cork hearts in the March Main Kit just great? And since there are several in the package I can use as many as I want without fearing that I will run out--which really helps negate the whole hoarding phenomenon ;).

To see a complete list of products found in the April Kits head on over HERE.

For those of you who are new to the Hip Kit Club , HCK has a membership forum on Facebook where everyone can chat, share their latest projects, and just hang out. The atmosphere is always fun, encouraging, and the Design Team is always around. Also, at the Hip Kit Blog you can expect a twice daily dose of inspiration from the Design Team with new projects being posted both in the morning and afternoon. Would love for you to stop by!

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

I really like both the rolls of Heidi Swapp washi in the February Embellishment Kit and I wanted to work it into a layout in a different way then I had previously done. What I decided to do was to create circle embellishments with it. To do this, I simply laid tape down onto a scrap piece of light patterned paper and used a manual die cutter to cut circles in two sizes. A punch would also have worked.

Since I was planning on using the circles as embellishments, I placed them in three clusters creating a visual triangle. Here is the final result:

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Spring is just around the corner and Elle's Studio has the perfect kit to help capture your memories and share your stories! March's beautiful kit and its coordinating printables and cut files, which went live this morning, are now available!

March's kit, shown above, is packed full with over 30 journaling, die cuts, embellishment tags, and labels. The kits are limited and once they sell out they will not be restocked. Look for a new kit each month on the 10th at 8:00 am PST, and as a special bonus to celebrate launch day, kits will be on sale for $9.99 for today only, regular price after that will be $11.99. These kits can ship first class: shipping for USA residents will start around $2.00 and go up from there, depending on the weight of what is in your cart. For overseas, it will run about $6+ depending on your location.

AND to make this day even more exciting, Cienna, Elle's Studio's newest collection, is NOW available in the shop!

How exciting is that?? I was pretty darn excited myself when this box of goodies containing both March's kit and Cienna arrived--certainly brightened my day almost as much as actually sitting down to play with it did! Here's what I did with March's kit:

Aren't the colors so pretty and soft? I thought they went just perfectly with these photos of my daughter inHer First Ride......

For February Sunshine, I featured the awesome red and green in the kit, perfect for those happy warm days spent outside...

Okay, the yellow "sunshine" die cut is VELLUM. That alone, in my opinion, takes this kit to a whole other level.

Well, are you excited yet??
Is their something particular you really like or are you like me and pretty much love it all?? I know that the design team has been having a whole lot of fun putting together some awesome projects using both the kits and Cienna, and I invite you to head on over to the Design Team gallery and have a look at their amazing projects. You will not be disappointed :).

Sunday, March 8, 2015

I am very happy to be contributing to the new self-paced Stamp Class at Citrus Twist Kits. This class will show you different ways to use stamps which include how to create your own pattern papers, creative uses for stamping, and basic techniques with a brief touch on inks, mediums, brushed, and organization. The class is only $12 and you receive both a stamp set and a PDF.

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Earlier in the year when Elle shared pictures of her newest collection Cienna with the design team, I knew I would be counting down the days until my box containing Cienna would arrive on my doorstep. Heck, I was so excited that when the mail lady finally dropped off my box as I was on my out the door, I took it with me!

So today, I am very happy to share my first layout created with Cienna as seen on on the Elle's Studio blog yesterday.

I combined a few of my favorite patterned papers from Cienna along with several items from the Bit's & Pieces--which now includes VELLUM shapes!

The "These Moments" sentiment was actually part of a 3x4 journaling card that I cut down to fit along side my photo.

The new yellow alphas really are a fave. In fact, I think the addition of this particular yellow is what really makes this collection stand out to me. So pretty. *Sigh*

Well, what do you think--are you as excited as I am about Cienna? I am really looking forward to working with this collection throughout the next few months and have already dreamed up all sorts of spring layouts I need to make!

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

The February Main scrapbook kit came with plenty of beautiful patterned papers, which is great because patterned paper is by far my favorite scrapbooking supply.
Patterned paper is also the backbone of any of my layouts and most of the time my initial instinct is to use as many pieces of patterned paper as I can. The problem though with this, is that I need to make sure I don't overwhelm the photo. One of the ways that I do this is to use small bits and pieces of paper. In this case, I went with 2x2 squares and thin strips:

I used a total of 4 pieces of patterned paper--two from the February Main Kit and two from the 6x6 paper pad in the Embellishment Kit. Since I used them sparingly I was able to get in a variety of patterns as well as keep the focus on the picture.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

This kit if full of newly released items from Elle's Studio, Pinkfresh, Crate Paper, and Amy Tangerine that co-ordinate perfectly! Here is a look at the four layouts I made:

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Well, what do you think about the kit? I know when I opened my beautiful bag my eyes and heart went straight to the new Craft Market chipboard from Crate Paper and I have to say it did not disappoint! I have only a few pieces of it left!